Fired hypersonic ballistic missile at Ukraine as warning to West: Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had launched a hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile attack on a Ukrainian military facility, and warned the West that Moscow could strike the military installations of any country whose weapons were used against Russia.

Putin said the West was escalating the conflict in Ukraine by allowing Kyiv to strike Russia with long-range missiles, and that the conflict was becoming a global conflict.

So Russia had conducted combat tests of the "Oreshnik" (the hazel) hypersnonic missile system in response to the aggressive actions of Nato countries against Russia, Putin said.

"In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons, on November 21 of this year, the Russian armed forces launched a combined strike on one of the facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine," Putin said.

"In combat conditions, one of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems was tested, among other things. In this case, with a ballistic missile in a nuclear-free hypersonic equipment."